Governors Ball 2015 Artist Spotlight – Benjamin Booker

So Governors Ball is coming up fast and since we’re all-fired up to gawk in attendance again, we figured we should do a little learning about the bands that aren’t Future Islands or Bjork or Drake or My Morning Jacker or Chromeo or Florence and the Machine or The Black Keys (damn, this lineup is killer), etc. The opening and early afternoon bands. The ones you might miss or just skip over in favor of the marquee acts but really shouldn’t.

Today, we’re going to look at Benjamin Booker and – frankly – we’re a little embarrassed that we haven’t before because this kid is some crazy timeless dirt-blues wrecking ball all-American rock and roll dug up from Southern soils with salvation in his frenzy and devils dueling in his toil.

He cites T. Rex, The Gun Club and Blind Willie Johnson as influences and that disparate list isn’t arrogant, press junket name-check bullshit. Booker fully embraces the glam show of Bolan, the wild punk strum of Pierce and the gospel slide of Johnson to inherit his own swelling space in the sonic spectrum that is fresh and free and fiery as all fuck.